Drivers of heavy-duty trucks are required to record their hours-of-service (“HOS”) record of duty status (“RODS”). Drivers can use automatic onboard recorder systems hard mounted in their heavy-duty trucks to automate this process using a combination of a driver-carried mobile device, onboard vehicle recording devices, vehicle communications hardware, host servers in communication with the vehicle, and mobile, host, and vehicle software applications resident on the driver-carried mobile device, onboard vehicle recording devices, and host servers, respectively.
Current onboard recorder systems require an HOS application to reside on the mobile device to perform HOS calculations and present HOS data to the driver. Current onboard systems are complex and costly. Changes in regulations and/or software changes require new software to be installed in the driver-carried mobile devices, vehicle recording devices, and/or host servers. As a result, maintenance of software across a vehicle fleet using current onboard systems is expensive for fleet owner/operators, which has resulted in limited adoption of the current systems. The multitude of different driver-carried mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablet computers, laptop computers, etc., with different device characteristics, such as screen size, resolution, memory, operating systems, etc. has also increased the cost of the current HOS systems because multiple native versions of the mobile software must be developed to operate on each different driver-carried mobile device. Additionally, drivers who use multiple driver-carried mobile devices, such as an original equipment manufacturer in-dash display, a personal smartphone, and a laptop computer are required to purchase and install several instances of the HOS software, one for each device, and maintain synchronous versions of the HOS software among the multiple devices.
While the vehicle is in operation, mobile workflow systems capture information onboard from vehicle computers, trailer computers, input from the driver, and/or other auxiliary inputs. This information is collected and generated onboard the vehicle and only later synchronized with the host systems using wireless communications. Systems today require the use of mobile computing and communication systems with onboard software that calculates HOS information, generates instructions to the driver, and reports actual events as they occur on the road. This method requires significant onboard processing and storage. These systems can also be costly to maintain and update since new software has to be transmitted to the mobile system wirelessly or installed manually when the operator can “catch and cable” the onboard system. The requirement to synchronize mobile and host applications adds complexity, cost, and errors to current fleet management systems.